Welcome to Texas on the Potomac’s “The Week Ahead,” a preview of events to come on Capitol Hill and at the White House this week. This week’s report was written by William K. Moore of ViaNovo.

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The Senate plans to complete action on a five-year farm bill Monday, hoping to build bipartisan momentum for an immigration reform proposal that will probably be on the floor the rest of June. The House passed highly partisan appropriations bills last week aimed at causing a fiscal showdown later this year. This week, Representatives will advance a bipartisan defense authorization bill. President Barack Obama escaped Washington, and a month-long slog of defending Administration controversies, to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to chart the future of US-China relations.

By Billy Moore

The Senate will pass the farm bill Monday afternoon – the result of a difficult balancing of regional, ideological and economic interests. Senate leaders plan to immediately begin debate on immigration legislation negotiated by a bipartisan group of eight Senate and approved by the Judiciary Committee in late May. The bill, an even more intense balancing of regional, ideological and economic interests, would revamp the nation’s immigration system, and allow millions of undocumented aliens a path to citizenship. During the week, the Senate expects to confirm judicial nominations and could confirm secretaries of transportation and commerce.

The House last week approved annual appropriations bills for Homeland Security and Military Construction-Veterans. The bills are doomed in the Senate as a result of a failure to conference a budget agreement, resulting in a $92 billion difference between the House and Senate appropriations allocations. The $92 billion is the amount of the sequester scheduled to take effective October 1 that would cut 9.8 percent from defense spending, 7.3 percent from domestic programs and 2 percent from Medicare. The most likely result is sequestration will occur under a continuing resolution that will keep government funded for several months into fiscal 2014.

Although controversies continue to swirl about the Obama Administration, the President’s approval rating is holding steady just below 50 percent.